


You'll Be the Death of Me

by The_Last_Kenobi



Series: Whumptober 2020 [28]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Battle, Character Death, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Not A Fix-It, Not Canon Compliant, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker Friendship, Serious Injuries, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27259660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Last_Kenobi/pseuds/The_Last_Kenobi
Summary: Anakin Skywalker loves a battle where he can show off - especially when his people aren't getting hurt along the way.He has fun right up until someone gets shot.Written for Whumptober 2020Day 28 (alternate prompt) - Shot
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Whumptober 2020 [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956463
Comments: 16
Kudos: 114





	You'll Be the Death of Me

Anakin Skywalker laughed as he fought.

This was a good battle, one of the rarely truly _good_ ones. They’d caught the Seppies by surprise, their fleet raining down on their strongholds from above and the small tactical ground team moving efficiently to corner the Separatist Admiral.

So far, no deaths on the part of Anakin and his team.

He, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Cody, Rex, and nine other troopers were making excellent headway, all of them at peak performance.

He sensed a wave of mingled amusement and irritation from his former Master down their old training bond.

Anakin laughed louder, executing a daring series of flips and turns, ricocheting blasts back at eight droids, obliterating them.

He landed neatly on his feet—

Just in time to catch a bolt in his side.

Anakin dropped to his knees and rocked backwards, sitting on his heels, all the breath knocked clean out of him.

“ _Anakin!_ ” Obi-Wan screamed.

Anakin’s lightsaber clattered to the ground and disengaged; his hand clamped down over the wound, but he didn’t even look at it, staring straight ahead with his eyes wide.

“Anakin! _Anakin!_ ” Obi-Wan was still screaming, and dimly Anakin registered that he had never heard the older man sound so terrified in all their years together.

“General—” shouted Rex, but Anakin couldn’t answer.

Then again, maybe he didn’t need to, because Obi-Wan did instead. “No, stay back, I’ll get him!” the red-haired Jedi shouted. 

The troopers and Ahsoka must have moved to cover them, because suddenly they were being advanced on instead of the other way around. None of the droids made it through, but they were still on defense instead of cruising an easy offensive. Damn it, they'd been doing so well. 

The pain caught up with Anakin just as Obi-Wan crashed to his knees in front of him, placing his hands on Anakin’s shoulders, bracing him upright. Worried sea-colored eyes were a foot from Anakin’s, and it took him a few seconds to realize he was being spoken to.

“What?” he said, dazed.

Obi-Wan’s eyes flashed with deep concern. “Let me see the wound. I can shore it up until we can get a medic on-site.”

“Okay,” Anakin said easily, staring at his best friend but consumed with the spear of hot pain running through him from one side to another. There were a lot of vital organs in that area, he was pretty sure. That couldn’t be good.

Obi-Wan scooted closer, their knees inches apart. One of the Jedi Master’s hands brushed Anakin’s aside and replaced it, resting over the wound; the other came up around the back of Anakin’s head and pulled him forward, bumping their foreheads together.

This was familiar.

This was what créchelings and young Padawans did when they were learning meditation and bond-sharing. Obi-Wan was making it easier for them to communicate and for him to monitor Anakin’s condition as he used Force Healing to keep him alive.

Anakin closed his eyes and gave in, following half-remembered paths to joint meditation.

The sounds of battle faded away to a quiet background buzz.

“Sorry, Obi-Wan,” Anakin mumbled. “Risky. Stupid... now we're stuck... Don’t wanna be the death of you.” His brow furrowed in an almost-pout, a childish expression he’d never been able to shake around his former Master and Padmé and even Ahsoka. “Know it’s not allowed—hm. Love you. You’re my best friend.”

He really must be messed up.

Spewing emotional stuff, not good.

Calm waves of blue-green-pale gold brushed against the edges of Anakin’s shields, a familiar, brotherly warmth.

The pain started to ease.

It wasn’t going away, but it was dulled, muted. Obi-Wan was healing what he could, and funneling away the pain.

Anakin frowned. Behind closed eyes, his own red-blue-bronze signature nudged Obi-Wan’s blue-green-pale gold. _Hey...You better not be channeling my pain into yourself, Master._

He sensed a smile. _Well—_

A bolt of furious red.

Heat-agony-shock.

Shattering their joint meditation.

Both pairs of eyes flew open at the same time.

Both looked down slowly, slowly, to see the twin marks on both of their chests, where a blaster bolt had ripped through Obi-Wan’s back, out through his chest, and burnt a mark into Anakin’s.

“Well,” Obi-Wan said softly, his lips trembling from shock. “I don’t think it’s going to be an issue much longer.”

" _No_ ,” Anakin whispered. “Oh, no.”

“Don’t apologize again, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said, almost chidingly, his breath starting to hitch wildly, distorting his words. He pulled their foreheads back together, both of them wincing with pain.

“I’m so sorry, Obi-Wan,” Anakin said anyway.

Behind them, Ahsoka screamed.

She wasn’t injured, Anakin could still sense that.

But she was hurt, because she’d seen, and she _knew_. Rex and Cody started shouting.

Anakin had never heard Cody sound panicked before.

“For the record,” Obi-Wan said, his voice hoarse and thin, but his eyes clear and earnest. “You’re—you’re like my brother, Anakin.”

Their free hands found each other, a fierce, fraternal handshake.

Something behind Obi-Wan’s eyes went out like a light.

“…Loved you too,” he murmured.

They fell at the same time.

Anakin’s hand slid from his Master’s shoulder; Obi-Wan’s hand slipped from his former Padawan’s neck.

Their clasped hands held together.

The droids were finished mere moments later, and their men converged on them, horror-struck. Rex knelt behind Anakin, Cody behind Obi-Wan.

Ahsoka knelt between them, and gently set one of her own hands on top of theirs.

She stayed that way until they made her leave—until the others arrived, to take the brothers home, for twin pyres side by side.


End file.
